Basically, the name まぢん is pronounced “mah-jeen”. As such, this would usually be written as “Majin” in English using the romanization method that most Japanese-to-English translators and students use. But other romanization methods might spell it as “madin” or “madzin” or “mazin”. In all cases, though, it’s still pronounced “mah-jeen” regardless of spelling.

What makes the problem a little weirder is that ぢ is rarely ever used in Japanese; instead, じ is normally used. It has the same pronunciation – using ぢ instead of じ in this case is just a stylistic choice. But sometimes they get romanized differently too, so it just adds more confusion to the fire. Regardless of all this, though, it’s still pronounced “mah-jeen”.

This “majin” word is normally written in kanji as 魔神 or 魔人 and generally refers to a powerful supernatural being with human-like or god-like qualities. There’s no singular translation into English; you’ll see everything from demon to devil to genie to djinn to warlock to magus. So if you see rumors say that this message is supposedly from the devil or something like that, this might be why.

Majin’s Identity

The truth in this particular case is that “majin” is simply an alternate way to read Masato (真人) Nishimura’s given name. And apparently this was his nickname since he was a kid – I guess the easiest way to explain it is that it’s like how I would sometimes call my friend Sean “Seen” instead of “Shawn” as a kid.

In any case, Masato Nishimura hid this child nickname in other games too, including Shenmue!

He revealed all this info in an old Japanese interview here. He says he added his nickname to stuff because he wanted it to stand out… and given gamers’ reaction to this secret Sonic screen, I’d say he succeeded at that!

Back on Track

The REAL question, though, was if this Majin name on the Sonic CD screen was a pun or if it was just because it was Masato Nishimura’s nickname. The answer is… that it was because it was his nickname… but he got the nickname as a kid because it was a goofy way to read his name. So it’s sort of both. And because of this and the romanization issues and everything else, it just got lots of fans confused.

Summary: This secret message isn’t from the Devil. Masato Nishimura has a childhood nickname that’s based on some wordplay with his name and a term for a supernatural being. He snuck that nickname into a few games – including Sonic CD – and it confounded players for a while.

Sorry if this is four years late, but the Japanese boss music is wayyy less creepy, and the screen was probably with that in mind. Take a look at this: https://youtu.be/LOnK4olyWj0?t=42s The image is still creepy though. 😛

For some reason, the US got an atmospheric soundtrack while Japan/Europe had an upbeat sountrack reminiscent of Shibuya-kei; either it’s done to accomodate the different opening track, or it’s just an example of US Kirby boxart syndrome. The only tracks that weren’t changed were the “Past” versions of the songs, which I’m guessing is because those are PCM audio as opposed to Redbook and thus would be more difficult to change.

Interestingly, when the game was new, I thought the past tracks were different for artistic purposes. They had a musical style reminiscent of the cartridge-based Sonic games, so the past versions of the Sonic CD stages sounded like, well, like Sonic’s past. I actually thought it was a pretty cool touch. I had no idea the US soundtrack was different and that the rest of the world got screwed out of Sonic Boom.

@David

Naw, legal issues is why they don’t use the japanese songs in modern Japanese/European Sonic CD releases(opting instead for lyricless versions). The changed US soundtrack is simply because they felt it would go over better that way in the US.

I’m sure that Sonic CD screen was creepier than it was meant to be for American audiences considering the Japanese/European boss music is hip-hop influenced. Some people also translate that text as “Sega gives you infinite pleasure”, which is creepy regardless of what music is playing in the background.

I got a question for you, Mato. Since you are dealing with Japanese kanji in localized games (your Monado and Street Fighter articles) I got another game series to add to the list: the .hack//G.U. games. I know you are busy so I make this short- I’ve been playing the Volume 1//Rebirth and noticed a lot of Japanese writing throughout my playthrough. I’ve seen it in the “Background pictures”, on the screen when you do a special attack, and on a character’s back. I only want you to do the first game and it’s alright if you don’t translate them all. Anyway, thank you.

I don’t have any of the games anymore, and I definitely don’t have time to play through them, so if you can get screenshots of any ones in particular that you wanna know about I can post a thing about ’em sometime.

They don’t sound alike, but they’re *spelled* alike. It’s easy to see how you could get someone going ‘delicious copy pasta’ in response to someone copypasting something, and then it catches on from there.

Only the Mega CD version of all the European releases use the Japanese soundtrack. the Windows 95 and the GameCube/PS2 releases use the American version of the soundtrack even in Europe…which annoyed me because the original Japanese soundtrack just seems like it fits with the game better. It certainly fits with itself better because at least the themes for the Past match the Present and Future themes… (for whatever technical reason, Past themes are the same song in every version, which Present, Good Future and Bad Future was changed to entirely different music for America).

Though nowadays all is well in the world, because the “new” version of Sonic CD for iOS, XLA, PC etc. (the ‘Christian Whitehead’ version) has the option to select between the two soundtracks, which pleases everybody. 😀

The Past music is the same because it runs off the Genesis soundchip instead of CD audio. Redoing the rest of the soundtrack was a matter of swapping out some MP3 files, redoing the Past themes would have required messing with the sound engine.

By the way, I just tried this on the Sonic Gems Collection version of the game (The GameCube disc). It’s very interesting; the FM NO. option doesn’t exist in this one, but by setting the other two to the correct options, I was still transported straight to this screen. I wonder if it would work even if FM NO. wasn’t set to 46?

The version of Sonic CD you played in Gems Collection was actually a lousy port of the equally lousy PC port of the Sega CD game. The PC port didn’t use any FM sounds and instead used .WAV-like rips for the sound effects. Oh, and it released with the USA soundtrack worldwide even in Japan. =P

Actually, that screen also exists as copy-protection. If the ROM is badly dumped (basically by the methods available for pirates when the game came out), the game boots directly to that screen, it was just added as a Sound Test cheat in addition because why the hell not let regular players see it. Don’t know if that changes the interpretation at all, but hey.

Also, obligatory request: I’ve been playing some NES games I’m familiar with in the original Japanese to help learn the language (I’m taking my JAP 101 class), but for whatever reason Hitler no Fukkatsu Top Secret (Bionic Commando) uses kanji in its dialogue! Any idea why this relatively plotless NES action-platformer uses kanji? (If you would provide translations of the kanji included for my own purposes that would be nice, since there can’t be that /many/, that would be nice, but I understand if that’s impractical.)

Some other differences between Sonic CD versions: In the Gems collection (and only this version), water in Tidal Tempest zone is completely clear and does not change the colour of things seen underwater.

In the Christian Whitehead version. you can select between the weird spindash this game used or the proper spindash common to the other Mega Drive games.

Also in this version, the level select was changed to actually function properly. In the original, you would be sent back to the title screen any time the game would normally have to load a new map (either by changing time zone or by clearing an act). In the Christian Whitehead version, level select will work as it does in other Sonics.

Also they added Tails as a playable character, complete with his flying ability and new sprites to match this game’s unique animations (such as spinning upwards from springs rather than bouncing while facing straight upwards). Though Tails cannot earn achievements.

Hmm. What else? There’s a new secret sound test image in this version, showing off a small portion of an unused desert zone with the initials “C.W.”

I did alittle research myself and apparently the text from the hidden message says “Fun is Infinite, Sega Enterprises; Majin. But I translated myself and it came up to be “Happiness ∞ Sega enterprises, Ltd.

Mato’s translation seems accurate to me. たのしさ can be read as “happiness”, but does have a focus on the “having fun” kind of happiness, which is why that was translated the way it was.

As for “hustle”… Uh, where’d you get that from? I can’t relate “majin” to that in any way, myself… Well, the interview Mato linked to made it abundantly clear it’ supposed to be just “Majin” (no further translation needed), anyway, as it’s a nickname.

Hi I was wondering if this hidden message shows up on the mobile phone version (windows phone,Xbox. Right now I have the demo of Sonic Cd on my phone but I don’t think the sound test settings appears on the demo and maybe if I purchase the full version for my phone I could get the sound settings opened. But before I make any purchases I would just like to know if i could get that setting or not for mobile. Please reply! Thank you.

HAHAHA please, do you think we are kids?.. c’mon, We know the satanic sects, they are actually pretty normal and common in the media, entertainment etc… Sonic satanic, why not?— the only succesful product of sega was Sonic, we know that

Obviously “Mato”, a PR person from funimation,sega etc. would say that its the producer and NOT Majin. Ye I bet the producer put that creepy music and creepy sonic AND the OHM chanting just for the LULZ.

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You know how when couch potatoes watch sports, some get angry and yell at players as if they were genuine super-experts who could do better? That same thing happens with translators all the time, so my hope is that the Legends of Localization series will help explain what it's like to actually be in the translation trenches.